With the Lions boys’ basketball team struggling to find its groove against visiting Tonganoxie, the junior guard heaved the burden onto his back.

“Khalil Bailey was probably the difference in the second quarter with his rebounding and going to the glass,” Lansing coach Rod Briggs said.

It didn’t stop there, as Bailey finished with a team-high 18 points to lead the Lions to a 59-46 win over the Chieftains.

“The jump shots were just falling,” Bailey said. “They just kept getting it to me and I was hot so I had to keep it going.”

After the first quarter the Lions were even with Tonganoxie at 14. Lansing then turned the momentum in their favor in the second quarter, thanks in large part to Bailey’s play.

The team outscored Tonganoxie 19-4 to take a 33-18 halftime advantage. In the final two periods, the Lions never relinquished the lead.

“We made some shots and I thought our defense was much better in the second quarter,” Briggs said. “When we’re really out playing and defending the way we need to, we are pretty tough to handle.”

Behind Bailey’s 18, Joe Schneider scored 15 points and Donte Gibson had 10. Lansing, 12-1, will play Friday at home against Turner at 7:15 p.m.

Another loss drops Pioneers below .500

Lawrence High isn’t the squad you want to run into when attempting to snap a losing streak, but that was the task for the Leavenworth boys’ basketball team.

Entering on a three-game slide, the Pioneers suffered its fourth loss in a row Tuesday when Lawrence beat LV 63-48.

“You’re always going to make stops, but eventually you’ve got to score,” Leavenworth coach Randy Freivogel said after standing in for head coach Larry Hogan, who was absent due to a family matter. “We had too many turnovers, and we couldn’t get a good shot selection, which led to run outs for them.”

Leavenworth experienced several scoring droughts, which kept them from keeping up with the high-powered Lawrence offense. That allowed a 12-point halftime deficit to sustain itself through the second half.

The Pioneers scored just 16 points in the first half. In the second, Leavenworth picked up the scoring, but Lawrence matched basket-for-basket.

“They eventually wore us down defensively because of our inability to score on the offensive end,” Freivogel said.

For the Pioneers, Trey Adkins led the way in scoring with 15. Shane Chikerema had 10, followed by Grant Lang with eight and Colin Dougherty with seven.

Page 2 of 2 - Leavenworth, 6-7, will look to snap its losing streak Friday at home against Olathe North. Tip off is at 7 p.m.

Foul trouble dooms Raiders

Immaculata big man Josh Boeppler was the proverbial thumb on the dike Tuesday, protecting the Raiders from getting washed away in the lane.

So once the 6’2” Boeppler fouled out midway through the fourth, the house fell in short order.

“They went right inside after that,” Imac boys head coach Mike Connelly said. “Their big man had 13 points in the second half.”

With Boeppler and Connor Schmidling on the bench, the two-possession game at the four-minute mark quickly got away, en route to a 57-46 loss.

The Raiders racked up 20 fouls on the night, compared to 12 for Valley Falls.

“We made critical errors and silly fouls,” Connelly said.

Immaculata had one-point leads at the end of every period save for the last. That’s when the fouls finally caught up with them.

Sean Murray led the Raiders scoring with 23, including 17 of Imac’s 26 first-half points. Danny Boisson had seven, and Boeppler had six.